1. Field of the Invention
The invention is in the field of webpage design and more specifically in the field of webpage optimization.
2. Related Art
Presently, it is relatively simple to create and publish a webpage on the World Wide Web (WWW). For some purposes, like providing a blog to publicize one's thoughts, the design of a webpage need only serve the tastes of the blogger. However, in other instances webpages are essential to the success of e-commerce and other online endeavors. Whether a potential customer will ultimately make a purchase or navigate away from a webpage depends in large measure on the initial impression that the webpage makes on the potential customer and how well the webpage then fills the needs of the potential customer by making goods or services easy to locate and obtain. It will be appreciated, of course, that these same considerations inform the webpage designs of many entities that are not necessarily seeking to sell anything, such as political and non-profit organizations. Thus, although one can put up a webpage in relatively short order and at little expense, designing a webpage that best serves the interests of an online organization or business can be quite challenging.
Traditionally, the design of webpages has been a matter of trial and error. A web designer creates a webpage, typically according to one's own sense of what works well, publishes the webpage by making the webpage available over the Internet, and waits to see what kind of response the webpage receives through metrics such as the number of views, the number of clicks, sales generated, and so forth. If the webpage is believed to be underperforming in view of these metrics, the web designer can implement changes and then see whether those changes improve or diminish the relevant metrics. A risk inherent in this procedure is that a poorly designed webpage will only be made worse through redesign. Another problem with this approach is that the relevant metrics may change for any number of reasons that are unrelated to the redesign of the webpage, and the respective weights cannot be discerned by simply observing the changes to the metrics. What is needed, therefore, is a means for testing the effectiveness of different designs for a webpage that is simple and quick to implement, that identifies improvements, and that limits the harm done by poor choices.